HarbourCats ticket policies are the cat's meow

Lost in the shuffle in the last couple of weeks of HarbourCats news was the release of the team's ticket policies. I recently went through the details listed on the HarbourCats web site and as a long-time sports fan and a current Victoria Royals Season Ticket holder, my reaction was very positive. Check out some of these gems:

• "Season Ticket holders will be able to manage their tickets online, including e-mailing tickets to friends or donating them to charity."  As a Royals Season Ticket holder, it’s a real pain to schlep paper tickets across town when I want to give away or swap tickets. This online ticket management feature will definitely save HarbourCats Season Ticket holders a fair bit of time. On top of that, charities will receive more tickets than they would otherwise. As a volunteer Big Brother, I really appreciate this option.

• “The Flex Pass can be managed online or at the box office to select your seats and send tickets to friends or charity.”  I’m impressed that Flex Pass holders are also granted this feature. That's a nice touch.
• Yellow Reserved Flex Pass holders will be able to, subject to availability, upgrade their seats to Blue Reserved for $2, or Grandstand for $4 per ticket, per game.  In my opinion, the Yellow Reserved Flex Pass is a steal of a deal. For only $99 (all in) you get 10 person-games of entertainment (e.g. a pair of tickets for five games) and the ability to upgrade your seats for a nominal fee. This is a great entry point for fans new to Royal Athletic Park who aren't sure where they want to sit. Insiders Tip: The Yellow Reserved seats along the first base line are the sunniest reserved seats in the park, so if you're going on a cool June evening make sure to sit in section 6, 7 or 8 (the further away from home plate you sit, the longer you bask in the sun).    
• “A ‘No Ticket Left Behind’ policy means an unused ticket can be exchanged for a future game ticket of the same level subject to availability.”  This straightforward statement sounds like common sense, but it’s actually a step up from the convoluted exchange policy of the Victoria Royals.

The HarbourCats front-office is in the process of getting their ticketing system up and running and they hope to have it operational by early in the New Year. The system will not be run by Select Your Tickets -- a successful company with a solid background in minor-league baseball will have that responsibility instead.  On top of a whack of extra features, the new ticketing system is rumoured to have lower service charges than Select Your Tickets. For instance, I recently paid $8 in service charges to buy a pair of Royals tickets valued at $16.50 each – the equivalent of a 24.2% surcharge.

The Victoria Royals and the folks at Select Your Tickets will have some serious catching up to do once sports fans in Victoria get used to buying (and managing) HarbourCats tickets on a state-of-the-art ticketing system.